Type News: Unhelvetican

Type among us

Bogglingly prolific letterer Laura Worthington has released her second font family in just under a month. The airy Mandevilla provides three semi-serif’d weights worth of open forms, “tendril-like” swashes, and subtle lachrymal terminalia. As with most of Worthington’s typefaces, alternates and typographic options are both plentiful and playfully deployed.

Perhaps better known for some of his weathered reproductions and experimental type, Poland’s Mateusz Machalski also proves he can sweat the geometric details. His Aneba consists of five squarish, low contrast weights in sans serif form. Details include a set of suitable obliques, slightly curved diagonals, and restrained “ink traps.”

Rui Abreu refers to Azo Sans as a “humanized geometric grotesque”. That particular description covers an awful lot of taxonomic ground, but it’s an accurate assessment. Throughout the six weights — from thin to black — the family maintains a aesthetic balance. Constructivist-inspired forms and the golden section come into play, but are softened with several design “nuances” — slight variations in the diagonals, optically adjusted counters, and modulated bowls.

Brisko Sans is a deceptively simple, five weight family from Dušan Jelesijević. Generous letterspacing, a quirky binocular g, and smattering of jaunty endings make for an interestingly modern sans — straddling both text and display. Feel like taking Brisko for a brisk walk? The bold and bold italic styles are available as free downloads from the Tour de Fonts site.

Adding to the mix, Jelesijević also released Brisko Display — an alternate cut of Brisko’s black weight — featuring a handful of tweaked characters, redrawn with attitude.